Who doesn’t love a gorgeous silk scarf? For thousands of years man has been making beautiful clothing and fabrics out of silk. In fact, to say silk has been around for a long time is an understatement. The earliest we know of silks use are from excavations of Neolithic tombs in China dating back 8,500 years. Silk was not for the masses in these days and was reserved exclusively for the Emperors of China. Slowly though silk became more widely available and its use and production spread throughout China and into other regions of Asia. Silk merchants became rich as production increased in an attempt to keep up with demand. When you have worn scarves or clothes made of silk it is not hard to imagine why demand grew so much. It has a lustre, texture and sheen like no other yarn. It’s ability to absorb dye is legendary and the richness of tone on silk fabrics is like no other.

As the centuries passed so the global spread of silk from East to West increased and slowly over time the Silk Road was born. Of course, this was never one road but multiple trade routes all starting off in China and heading West.

At York Scarves we sell a range of scarves in various types of silk, all of which have their own distinct characteristics. Our Thai Silk Scarves are known the world over and are made from a completely raw and unprocessed yarn. The yarn is removed from the cocoon of the silk worm and then several strands of the thread are woven together to provide the finished yarn. The minimum ply rating in general use is 3 ply but we always spend that bit extra and insist on 5 or 6 ply. This means our scarves, unlike the cheaper ones, don’t fall to bits and aren’t like a cobweb when you hold them up to the light. The silk we use is a staple of the rural economy of Northern Thailand and the scarves are all produced on basic hand operated looms. The scarves are a rich cream colour in their undyed state. We employ a simple method dip dying to create our simple shaded two tone pure silk scarves UK. As you might expect with a raw yarn there are many anomalies and slubby bits in the yarn and it is these irregularities that when woven into the fabric give the scarf its distinctive look.

Another raw silk scarf we sell is made by our hand loom weavers in North India. The silk used is much heavier than the yarn used for Thai Silk making this more of a luxury silk scarf. These simple striped scarves have a timeless elegance beautiful simplicity about them. The silk used to make these is a local silk made in Bihar N India, a region long famous for silk production. As you can imagine India is one of the biggest consumers of silk in the world. You only have to look at the huge number of brightly coloured sarees to realise how deep India’s love affair with silk runs.

As part of our range of digitally printed scarves we have some Habotai Silk Scarves with artwork designed in house. Habotai silk is a very basic plain weave with a smooth flat finish that is traditionally made in Japan. The yarn used for these is heavily processed and has had all the irregularities taken out of it. This makes it perfect for many uses such as traditional Japanese kimonos, light weight clothing and as a lining fabric for jackets.

Lastly, we also have a range of luxury silk scarves made in a satin weave. Off all silk’s satin is probably the most lustrous and luxurious, and expensive. The finish is obtained by the weaving style and in satin almost all of the warp yarns are on one side of the fabric and almost all of the weft yarns on the reverse. This method of weaving creates a fabric with its own unique character and one of the beauties of satin is how soft and pliable it is. This makes it perfect for garments that are worn next to the skin such as scarves, underwear and night wear, amongst others.